


If You Love Someone

by DeadricDaughter19



Category: Bumblebee (2018), Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: A Relationship That Could Never Really Work, Abuse of trust, Alien Culture, Bumblebee Doesn't Really Understand How Humans Work, Bumblebee/Charlie Watson-centric, Charlie Learns How to Tell Bumblebee No, Complete, Cultural Differences, Dubious Consent, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Wedding, Implied/referenced Relationship, Learning to move on, Memo Deserves Better, Memo Is Way Too Accepting, Mentioned Memo/Charlie Watson, Potential Spoilers, Size Difference, Technically Tragedy, letting go, taking advantage of a situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-14 10:40:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17507045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadricDaughter19/pseuds/DeadricDaughter19
Summary: Letting the other go was a huge mistake. Bumblebee aims to correct this and take his rightful mate. Charlie just wishes that he hadn't come back and made things that much harder.A brief string of short, connected one-shots exploring a tragic side to my new OTP. Potential spoilers for Bumblebee 2018.





	1. Let Them Go

**Author's Note:**

> So... This is my first attempt at something like this, so I apologize for the quality. I also apologize for how short they are, but it feels appropriate. This likely won't be more than three or four chapters long.

He hadn't seen her in two years, because he'd let her go. He had known that to be a mistake, and he planned to swiftly correct said mistake. It had taken him a while to find her once he'd started looking - she'd moved from her old home town, going to someplace called a 'college'. He understood that it was some form of learning center that would allow her to get a job, though he was surprised she didn't have an assigned one. Those couple weeks with her hadn't really been enough to teach him about Earth, and he hadn't really been trying to learn once parting ways with her. HIs kind didn't really plan to interact with humans much, so there wasn't much of a point.

When he found her, he was prepared to chase that boy from before away and fight for her. She was  _his_ , just as much as he was  _hers_ and that was something that he just  _knew_ she would understand. She always seemed to understand, even before he got his radio to use. He didn't expect to encounter problems directly from  _her_ and felt confusion when he finally found her, and she wasn't immediately happy. She was upset, upset with  _him_ and he couldn't understand that. He had come back to her, come back  _for_ her. He wanted to take her away, wanted her to be his sparkmate.

She had known why he come and hadn't even seemed surprised. Even still, why wasn't she happy? Her little frame was tense and her body released a scent of anxiety and distress. Her words were lost on him - he knew what she was saying, but didn't want to believe it. They met in the dark, away from prying eyes and far from the hearing range of other humans. He'd  _show_ her that there could be no one else, though she protested that she was dating the boy from before - _Memo_ , if he remembered right.

Her body responded beautifully to him, accepting him. Her scent gave away that she wanted no one else, the sounds that she made making it obvious that he was the one she craved. She knew it, he knew it, and  _still_ , even as he proved to her that he was more than enough for her, protested. Her voice, always so soft and gentle, held a tone of grief that he could not comprehend. It frustrated him beyond anything, and he let her know it. He was rougher with her than he should have been, but despite her protests that they  _shouldn't_ , that they  _couldn't_ , she never out-right told him to stop.

She didn't want him to stop, he knew. She was  _his_ and he was certain of this. Finally, he decided that he had to be patient. She would come to him when she was ready to leave, would come to him when she was ready to stop playing hard to get. Their little encounters continued, always with her protesting and him always winning by getting her body to respond to him. Sometimes, he felt guilty as he silenced her protests by turning her natural reactions against her. A small, barely-noticeable voice in the back of his mind whispered to him that what he was doing was selfish, was wrong. He was trespassing on her right to reject him, her right to deny her true feelings. It sounded suspiciously like his leader, but he dismissed it.

The first time wasn't very easy, particularly for her. She was half his height, and was very thinly framed. Even so, her soft frame did as he expected and accepted him anyways, her body stretching for him. It awed him just how sensitive and soft she was, how her body changed to accommodate him. Her cries were pained at first, but that was to be expected given the differences between them. Despite their encounters, despite all the proof, she never wavered. She stayed with that human, never once wavering before him. She felt no guilt, no shame from their activities, he was certain, and yet she still had the audacity to attempt to reject him.

Finally, he believed he found the reason as to why. She was a femme - and humans were binary creatures. She desired sparklings, and only the human she stayed with could give them to her, but she could only receive them without scrutiny if she became the boy's mate. That was fine with him - he could share her if she wanted sparklings that badly. She only attempted to reject him because that was the 'proper' thing to do, to turn away any other lovers. She was still his and felt nothing for this human, he was certain. He could not give her sparklings that she must have craved, so he would allow her to keep the surrogate.

She had been patient for his return after all, had she not? He had sensed that she did not want him to leave, yet he had allowed for her to stay behind as he left her. He should have known better than to leave her in the first place. This was likely also a punishment for him abandoning her and not staying by her side. He could handle that.

He never considered that she was trying to protect him from anything.


	2. If They Return, They're Yours Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie is torn between what she knows she has to do, and her love for her first car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, here's the second chapter of this should-be-a-three-shot ficlet. This time, from more of Charlie's POV with potential for a little bit of Memo in it.

Two years ago, she had been a normal girl just trying to cope with the death of her father. Two years ago, she had been more concerned with her self-pity than anything else. If someone had told her before she found him what would come after, she wouldn't have paid them any mind in any capacity. Now that she was living through the situation, it was threatening to tear her apart.

She loved him more than  _anything_ in the universe, she knew that for certain. But she also loved Memo, and she wasn't sure that he understood that. That she had been trying to  _move on_ when he suddenly came squealing back into her life five months ago. She didn't understand what he wanted from her as he kept ignoring her pleas for him to  _leave_ and  _not come back_.

He  _always_ came back. He was always there, at the spot where she once went to just so she could clear her head. It was habit to go there, and curiosity to see if he was still there is what drove her to keep going. It had nothing to do with the fact he would slowly, carefully turn her body against her. It had nothing to do with how he was so damn  _gentle_ and managed to make their size difference  _work_.

She had been terrified, utterly  _terrified_ , that first time. She had been on the verge of a panic attack, and he hadn't really noticed. Of course he hadn't notice, he was an  _alien_ for God's sake! She knew she shouldn't feel this way, not for him and she shouldn't crave him the way that she did. He was always there, though, and he always had her crying his name before he was done. It shouldn't have worked, it shouldn't be a  _habit_ by now - and yet she was addicted.

She didn't lie to Memo about it. She  _couldn't_ do that to the one human being in her life outside her family who'd given her the time of day. She just hadn't expected his response.

"Why don't you just elope with him already?" had been Memo's first question after she told him of her affair.

She had expected a break up. Yelling, hysterics,  _anything_ but him just calmly accepting it at face value and asking her why she stayed.

"Because it can't  _work_!" she had yelled at him, the stress of it finally getting to her. "Because he's an alien, and I'm human! Because your my  _boyfriend_ and should be fucking livid with me! Because I  _love the both of you the same amount_!"

He had called them excuses. She could choose, and Memo knew which of them she wanted  _more_. She wanted the adrenaline rush, the thrill of being in the arms of something so deadly and powerful -  _red optics glaring, gun blazing as he forewent all mercy at the sight of her body being thrown to the ground and the sound of her brief yelp of pain, the way he immediately stopped when she called out to him_ \- and she wanted to cling to the wonder that she always felt in his presence.

He'd asked her real reason, and she had broken down crying.

"It can't work, Memo. He's not just an  _alien_ \- he's robotic in nature. He hasn't changed since the day we met, yet look at me! I look older, more like a woman! He doesn't understand that humans  _age_ , Memo. I'm going to die in what may as well have been the blink of an eye to him and being with him is only going to make it that much harder on him! He won't move on once I die if I let this continue! He won't-"

She couldn't keep talking, the thoughts causing her to break down.

"Then  _tell him_ , Charlie."

She had tried after that. Oh  _how_ she had tried, but Bumblebee always ignored her. She could never hold his attention long enough to tell him before he had gotten to work on starting up their next affair. Each time the pleasure was more intense as he learned her body better, and taught her how to pleasure him in return. This had to stop, it really did. She just didn't know how to get the words across. How to tell him what was to come.

Finally, after two years of an affair, she managed to get through to him. Her heart was breaking when she had screamed at him, " _Bumblebee! Look at me!_ " and he had recoiled in shock, as if he had been struck. She was upset and knew that he didn't know why as she broke down crying in front of him. He had been so focused on proving he was better than any human could ever hope to be for her, that in his optics she was cheating on  _him_ with Memo rather than the other way around, that it was the first time he'd fully taken in her features since they had been reunited.

And she had seen how he recoiled even more when he did stop and actually  _look_ at her. She looked older, her face less round and her chest slightly bigger. Her hair was a tad lighter and she was just a few centimeters taller. Barely noticeable by human stands, but huge changes from his point of view. She hated having to force him to actually see the truth. She was aging.

"Bumblebee," her voice cracked with the emotional turmoil she felt. "I didn't want you to come back and see this. I wanted you to stay away and forget me, because I didn't want you to get so badly hurt when you realized the truth. I'm  _dying_ Bumblebee. Humans are dying from the day they are born. We don't live until some outside force kills us - we can live sixty, seventy, or even eighty years if we're  _lucky_. More often than not, we die by the time we're in our fifties or sixties. I'm not going to live forever, and I didn't want to put you through having me for just a few  _moments_ before losing me forever."

Her heart broke at the look on his face, the way he backed away from her as if he was seeing her for the first time. She watched him sit and curl up, just like the first time they'd originally met. He was horrified rather than scared this time, though, she knew. She felt tears falling down her cheeks as she tried not to break down sobbing. Crying she could handle doing in front of him, but not sobbing.

"I tried to tell you," she finally managed, barely above a whisper. She knew that he could heard her still. "I didn't want you to get hurt like this, 'Bee. I love you more than  _anything_ , but... But we can't do this. It's only going to hurt worse in the end if I don't end it now."

She backed away slowly, waiting for a reaction. He didn't even twitch, a low whining sound reaching her ears. She choked back a sob as she realized he was either crying or on the verge of it. She had  _hurt him_ and it hurt her so much. How  _could she_? It  _had_ to be done and she felt so  _rotten_ for doing it. So finally, she turned on her heel and ran. She didn't bother to look back, forgetting to tell him that she was now engaged to Memo.

The pain was just too much to bare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the gods of Egypt this was /hard/ to write. It was painful for me to write out. Just, /these two/.


	3. If They Don't, They Were Never Yours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memo knows that Charlie never really came back to him after her first reunion with Bumblebee. He understands why she stays, though, despite the fact her heart isn't with her. Even so, he can't help but hate Bumblebee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short little way to wrap this up, from Memo's POV. I think it's the shortest of the chapters, but I'm happy with the way it ended up.

In the end, it wasn't fair to either of them. Memo knew that he shouldn't hate Bumblebee for something the alien hadn't even realized he was doing, but the hate was still there. It wasn't fair to Charlie, who had given her heart to the Star Strider. Even so, he wasn't really sure what to expect when he married Charlie. It certainly wasn't spending the wedding night alone, as Bumblebee had been at the wedding. He had been discreet, but the two had spotted him. He didn't pursue her, didn't interrupt them. He knew in his heart that it was the last night they would ever see each other, and knew that it hurt Charlie beyond words.

They'd found out she was pregnant a few weeks later, and he was excited. The car was gone, Charlie was now focused on the baby instead of what she lost, and he was going to be a father. It didn't cross his mind that the timing was off, that the two had only shared a bed a few times since Bumblebee came waltzing back. They'd been more intimate since the wedding, so it didn't cross his mind. It should have, he should have realized it was off.

He was in denial. Even then, standing there in the bedroom, staring down at the crib. Charlie had hazel eyes and dark brown hair, he had black hair and black eyes. The child in the crib, as all children, had small wisps of hair that looked lightly colored. She was about half a year old by now, and her eyes were what made him hate Bumblebee in that moment. Blue, bright and very nearly inhuman in their shade. Skin that was light, like Charlie's. She was Charlie's daughter, he'd been there in the delivery room. But the baby wasn't  _his_. In the end, Bumblebee had the last laugh. In the end, Bumblebee had  _won_.

Charlie never had been, and never would be, Memo's girl. For all that he loved her, she loved that car more. For all that he provided for her, she desired the danger of the alien. She didn't care that the government was hunting him, didn't care that the child in the crib was only half-human. Even so, Memo hated Bumblebee. He didn't hate the little girl that he was going to raise with Charlie, didn't hate Charlie for a desire she couldn't control. The two had been star-crossed lovers, both literally and figuratively.

Sighing, Memo crossed the room and picked the awake child up. The child never cried, not that he'd noticed anyways. He cradled her, and looked for any more tell-tale signs. So far, it was just the eyes. Other than that, she looked perfectly human.

"You're going to be a troublemaker, just like your dad, aren't ya?" he murmured softly, a smile curling his lips when the baby laughed. "Charlie can deny it all she wants, but we both know who your daddy is, don't we? As much as I hate him, I do hope that you'll get the chance to meet Bumblebee. He deserves to know he has a kid, and you deserve to know the other half of you."

A little coo from the infant that made Memo smile more. His heart ached terribly, knowing that Charlie had never truly come back to him after he made it clear he let her go. He'd hoped, deep inside, that she somehow  _did_ want him more than the car. Even so, he knew that she didn't. She wanted Bumblebee and he couldn't ever change that. He didn't know what had made the child in his arms possible, but he promised that he would raise the child to the best of his abilities. That he'd make sure she knew about her real father from the get go.

Charlie deserved that much, to not have him reject the truth. He knew she was denying it for his sake and he wished that he and Bumblebee hadn't hurt her so. Because in the end, they both had hurt her in ways that he knew Bumblebee would never understand.

"Come on, Honeybee. Let's go find Mommy," Memo murmured, looking up and heading out to find Charlie.

The workaholic was likely in her garage again, the man mused with fondness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's the end to this ficlet. In this story, by the way, Memo took Charlie's last name. I haven't found an official last name for Memo, so I'm just gonna use the Watson name. The baby in this chapter is named Honeybee Watson. For the moment, no middle name since I can't think of one. It really felt fitting to write this chapter this way, though I originally had no idea how this fic would end. Originally it was going to focus on the last night Bumblebee and Charlie were together, but this felt more fitting. Because really, Memo got the short end of the stick no matter what way you slice it in this AU. May as well throw him a bone in letting him raise 'Bee's kid.


End file.
